The present invention has essentially for a subject matter a method for making an encaged nut for assembling metal or composite materials in the form of for example plates or panels constituted by fibres coated with a synthetic resin or the like.
It is also directed to a product obtained by the said method, i.e., more precisely, separate encaged nuts or a plurality of such encaged nuts connected together into a flexible strip.
Encaged nuts have generally been known for a long time, which include essentially a nut placed in a substantially U-shaped support the base of which can be secured to an element such as for example a panel, so as to thereafter secure the said element to another element by screwing and thus obtain an assembly.
More precisely, there have already been proposed encaged nuts connected into a strip including a metal member of U-shaped cross-section between the legs of which are mounted a plurality of floating nuts. The strip may be secured by riveting e.g. to a panel which can thereafter be assembled by screwing e.g. to another panel.
However, such a metal and rigid strip of encaged nuts is not suitable for assembling composite materials which, nowadays and as is well known, tend to replace the traditional materials used to obtain any particular part or member, especially in the aircraft industry.
Indeed, it is known that the assembling of composite materials remains a difficult operation and, in any case, the riveting of such materials is to be prohibited. Furthermore, the nuts used to assemble such materials must be such as to avoid any galvanic corrosion, i.e., the appearance of a potential between the fibres of the composite material and the metal of the nut. Now this phenomenon necessarily occurs with the known encaged nuts or with the encaged nuts connected together into a metal strip, as explained previously.